$67 Million Loophole

1. Protesters will be gathering outside the Chase Bank at 2nd and Union in downtown Seattle today at 11 to protest the $67 million state tax loophole that big banks get on mortgage loans.

As the legislature begins its special session today to reach a budget compromise over whether they should raise the sales tax or find more tax loopholes to close, the break for banks—which the House wants to end and the Senate does not—is taking center stage.

2. Also on the protest docket this week, Real Change is asking people to come to City Hall to testify against council member Tim Burgess' anti-panhandling legislation at Wednesday morning's Public Safety & Education Committee meeting.

Erica has written about the ordinance extensively. Some of her recent reports are here (anti-ordinance), here (anti-ordinance), and here (pro-ish.)

3. On Saturday afternoon, one of Seattle's rock'n'roll legends, Christopher "Slats" Harvey, died after what friends are calling a difficult bout with cancer.

Several months ago, Slats, who was best known for his time in the early 80s Seattle punk band Silly Killers, broke his hip and almost had his leg amputated. Friends threw a benefit concert in his honor back in December to help raise money to help him recover. Few people knew that he was actually battling cancer at the same time.

R.I.P. Slats.

4. PubliCola is happy to report that we've hired New York Times writer and Wired magazine freelancer Kristina Shevory to fill out our 21st Century biz coverage. Kristina, who also covered eastside business news for the Seattle Times back in the early 2000's, joins Cola tech pundit Glenn Fleishman and gadet guru Sam Machkovech on our biz reporting team.

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